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Butterfly's Wings, Session Seven, The Verdant Exploration
Opening The session opened in the hearthroom of Mother's Sanctum, with our heroes looking at their Lunar mates and familiars with profound curiosity, while Fern examined her new prosthetic limbs. Leviathan and Shahra began explaining, but were interrupted. The combined stress of the slaying of Amyana, being subdued and speaking with the First and Forsaken Lion, and watching Raven being taken from them, wore at Largo. Upon hearing that both his Lunar mate and his beloved familiar had been keeping information from him, Largo simply snapped, the Great Curse taking hold of his mind. Though exhausted by the previous battle, he dove ferociously at Leviathan, scythe raised. Leviathan assumed a colossal form and managed to pin Largo against the wall, where Serentatis spun webs to pin him in place. Largo continued shouting and twisting, but the combined might of the Lunars managed to keep the exhausted Solar in place. Serentatis, who had heard stories of the madness of the Solars, found Largo's reaction quite curious, and examined his reactions perhaps a little more closely than would have been prudent. Mysteries Revealed At this point, the party gathered around in a circle and began telling everything they knew. Leviathan began at the beginning. The Lunar had exalted midway through the High First Age. He received his title as Admiral quite quickly afterward, particularly considering he wasn't even a Solar. Leviathan owed much of his success to his strong work ethic in a world where most admirals simply wore their titles and delegated virtually all of their duties. He owed much of his political success to the prestige of the Circle he had exalted into. It consisted of a semi-perfect five Golden Hero Vassals; Solars who had Exalted prior to the founding of the Deliberative, and the only entire circle to do so. This included two of the half dozen original Solar Exaltations, and another three of the dozen original Lunar Exaltations. This was also the circle of Brigid, something of a mystery Exaltation that had disappeared entirely a few centuries ago and was the subject to much debate. She had developed the original life-extending Charms that the Solars were so quick to take, and her Circle was thus notoriously long-lived. The years wore on, and the Deliberative grew increasingly corrupt. This particular Circle was not as involved with politics as most were, focusing instead on rulership and their individual pursuits. Eventually, the Usurpation occurred, and the Sidereals and Dragon-Blooded overthrew the Solars and their Lunar mates. In the chaos, every one of the ancient Solars perished, as did each one of the Lunars from their Pack- save Leviathan and Raksi. In the years following, Leviathan began running into creatures from the Underworld, and eventually discovered the fate of Arcadi's ghost. He still does not know the details of how this occurred, but has used the relationship as an uneasy alliance ever since, typically using Shahra as a mediator. Shahra had been affected strangely by the Prison; she was a spirit bound in service to Arcadi and his future incarnations, yet she was a holy creature, and his Essence Shard could not reincarnate. Thus she was trapped in the Underworld. Leviathan assisted the Lunars where he could, but from the minute he realized Arcadi's shard could not reincarnate, he devoted himself to one thing: Freeing the Solars. Lytek had approached him and explained what he knew about the Jade Prison, and said that his best guess was that it was sunk deep beneath the Western Ocean. So, Leviathan began to search. He put up a front in maintaining Sunken Luthe, and spread rumors that he was going mad to stop those from inquiring too deeply into his activities. From there, he began a search. Untold centuries later, he located it, only to discover that touching it or attempting to break it would trap his own Exaltation. He needed someone strong who was not a being of Creation. And idea entered his mind, but first he consulted Lytek. Lytek's analysis of the Prison ended up producing very carefully inaccurate schematics, which were then provided to the Deathlords. The Deathlords knew the designs were probably sabotaged, but they did the best they could, their Solar hubris still a part of their personality. They constructed a terrible behemoth that cracked the Jade Prison, but only managed to gather half of the Exaltations. Friendly Warriors and an Encampment Raid The party finished their discussion, finally out of questions for the moment. Largo had calmed down, and after a bit more questioning by Serentatis, was cut down from the wall. Largo and Leviathan made up. Then Pick was questioned about jade deposits he had mentioned earlier. The party boarded the Coatl and headed to the mining encampment Pick described. They stopped at a nearby town and asked for news at the tavern. The tavern owner recognized that the party was a powerful fighting force, and likely one that wasn't sympathetic to the Realm; partially due to Amber's immense charisma, and partially because Largo was the size of a small horse and the Circle was carrying weapons as big as themselves. He hinted that the party ought to visit a certain valley at sunrise. The party did as instructed, and as the sun rose, they spied an Icewalker barbarian walking toward them. He quickly realized that the group before him was well beyond the normal group of disgruntled villagers, and decided to escort the party directly to the guerrilla headquarters. There, the party met an old man carrying a bow, who introduced himself as Yurgen Kaneko, the Bull of the North. Yurgen was delighted and amazed to see such a large group of Celestial Exalts willing to work with him. He eagerly set out plans for the recapture of the mines, and agreed to give the party enough jade for their repairs. Given the immense firepower available, he opted that the party strike the following day, and display as much force as possible. The following evening, the party donned skis, with the exception of Dax, who stayed in the Coatl. On the Bull's mark, the party charged the encampment, intentionally causing as much chaos as possible. Largo uprooted the tents and threw them in the air, while Fern proceeded to rapidly set everything on fire. Dax flew overhead in the ship, striking the encampment with enormous blasts of lightning. The Lunars donned their most terrifying and enormous forms. The most terrifying being of all, however, was Amber, whose music caused the flames to leap about the encampment, and the sound was nothing short of a nightmare. The encampment broke and ran in terror. The few that were hiding in the mines themselves quickly fell prey to Shahra as Largo pushed her down the tunnel in a mine cart. The party regrouped and congratulated themselves on the enormous success. The rout would likely become legendary. Yurgen, loathe to let such a potent fighting force escape, requested that some remain to help him finish his campaign in this part of the North. The Lunars, realizing that the party would likely have need of Yurgen's prowess and armies, volunteered to stay behind. Brief Travels The party decided to explore the ship's dragon line tracking abilities, and located the nearest demesne. Fern formed a manse over the location with a Celestial circle spell she had recently learned, which manifested as a grid of stone cubes. When Fern took the hearthstone from the center, one of the cubes launched itself at her, but she ducked out of the way. The hearthstone that was formed was a Stone of Quick Thought. The party socketed one of the hearthstones from Midnight's crown into the Coatl, and followed the hearthstone compass to a small wooded island to the west of the Blessed Isle. There they found a comfortable cottage with a warm fireplace and a strange, friendly puppy (a bound servitor of sorts) that seemed very eager to see them. The party relaxed for a while, attuning to the manse, and discovered that the hearthstone was a Stone of Recognition, which was given to Amber. They dubbed this manse Home. The party continued south toward the other Hearthstone, this one an Abyssal stone that seemed cracked in half. First, they stopped at the Desert Lion tribe, to find that their numbers had swelled and were doing quite well for themselves. They continued to the manse and located a strange temple that seemed as though exactly half of it had been worn away. The party negotiated with and killed a Fair Folk. They made a lot of jade and fixed the temple. Flowers and Honey The party investigated a town and found it full of flower zombies. They killed the zombies with a lot of fire and stabbing. They headed into the Wyld, leaving Dax to watch the ship. After traveling across several interesting and dangerous hazards, many floral-themed, the party came at last to Lost Zarlath. The city's marble spires were overrun with roses and with the luminous bees. The party managed to harvest some honey without agitating its keepers too badly; this they refined into a Translation Crystal. Fern used Wyld-Shaping Technique to make the bees some keepers. The party then headed back out into the Wyld and ran into Dax... Character Thoughts and Reactions Steve apologizes that the sessions haven't been as frequent as he'd like. They really will pick up again. Also, the Wyld is SO much fun. Dean is loving Largo and hopes that everyone else is finding him fun to RP alongside as well. Now he wants to do a bit more scaring of things. And he wants his armor back, dammit. Followed by Butterfly's Wings, Session Eight, The Castle of Chaos. Category:Sunlight on the Water Category:Fury of the Butterfly's Wings